Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival 2026

A live, moderated conversation in the style of Beyond the Boat — but not recorded — featuring four panelists:•    A shipwright•    A wooden boat owner•    An operator/captain•    A representative from a maritime education programDuration: 60–75 minutesAudience Q&A included.
ConceptWooden boats endure not simply because they are beautiful, but because people choose to carry them forward.
This session explores how different roles — ownership, craftsmanship, seamanship, operations, and education — intersect in sustaining wooden boats. Each panelist represents a distinct path, yet all share responsibility for continuity.The conversation centers on:• Why individuals choose to commit to wooden boats• How responsibility shapes that commitment• What continuity requires from each role• How these paths overlap in real life
The goal is not technical instruction, but reflection. Wooden boats are more than vessels. They are places where people learn patience, care, accountability, and stewardship.
This session invites the audience to see wooden boats not as isolated projects, but as living ecosystems sustained by interconnected choices.
Why This Fits the FestivalThe Festival celebrates craftsmanship, tradition, and community. This conversation highlights the human dimension behind that celebration.Rather than focusing on tools, techniques, or restoration specifics, this session examines:• The values that sustain wooden boat culture• The shared responsibility between builders, owners, operators, and educators• The lived experience behind preservationIt speaks to current owners, aspiring stewards, and younger generations entering the field.
Intended ToneConversational, thoughtful, accessible.Honest about challenges.Grounded in lived experience.
This is not a lecture. It is a guided conversation designed to invite the audience into the deeper story of continuity.

Panel discussion of how various riggers stumbled into the field, some of their experiences, how they pass along the knowledge to newcomers

Moderated by Mark Shiner
Allison Wood, Emiliano Marino, 

What does it mean to devote your life to making sails?
Part craft, part engineering, part problem-solving, sailmaking sits at the intersection of tradition and performance — shaping the way boats move through the world. Join a conversation with working sailmakers as they share stories from the loft, discuss the evolution of the craft, and explore what it takes to build sails for everything from traditional wooden boats to modern voyaging vessels.
In many parts of the world, traditional sailmaking is becoming increasingly rare. Here in Port Townsend, it remains a vibrant and active part of the working waterfront.

What do most adventurers have in common? How do they ensure they get to base camp fit and ready to take on the actual challenge they set out to accomplish? How do they handle fear? And how do they handle the fear of failure?  This talk is for a more general audience but of course is based on my sailing experience.
Possible other topics – Storm Tactics, preparing for and handling storms at seaHow to encourage your partner to share your dream?Creating an unstoppable boat.